Issue with USB camera freezing in NCS

I’m using 5 IP cams and 1 usb cam. Quite often the usb cam will freeze, and the only way to get it going again is to either restart the NCS service, or reboot the computer. I know the camera is fine as I installed a trial version of different software and the usb cam continued to show and record on that one when it froze on NCS. It can happen after an hour, or be fine for a couple of weeks, before it freezes. There is no pattern. CPU usage never goes above around 50%. I run NCS as a Windows service and I’m on v1.9. The usb camera has no user options (it’s a cheap usb webcam). I have tried each resolution. Any suggestions @Henrik ? Thank you :blush:

Hi,
Has it always been like this or is it something new?
Which Windows OS?
If you are running NCS 64bit version try the 32bit version.
–Henrik

Hi @Henrik. I’ve had to move to 32 bit NCS as the usb camera won’t show in 64 bit version. I’m on Windows 10 pro, 64 bit with 8GB of ram. It’s always been like this with the usb camera. I have done a clean install of windows and NCS and the issue with the usb cam remains.

Hi,
The usb camera has a 32-bit driver therefore not working with NCS 64-bit. Does the usb-camera have a 64bit driver?
Can it be a memory problem? The 32bit NCS can only address about 2 GB. Since you also have 5 IP cams that will be a problem after some time. If it´s possible to disable an IP cam test that.
-Henrik

Thank you again @Henrik . I’m going to look for a 64 bit driver for the usb camera, just to rule that out. The driver was auto installed by windows 10 so I’d guess 64 bit not available? I will search and search now :blush: It only started when I added the usb cam. It may well be memory as it’s the 6th cam on my setup, maybe a coincidence that it only started when I added this cam. If I can find the 64 bit driver I’ll chance back to 64 bit NCS, will keep you updated :blush:

Test also;
Settings - Decoding Buffer. Decrease that will use less RAM.
–Henrik

I’ve lowered that setting. Will monitor it and keep you updated. Thanks as always @Henrik :blush:

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Strange one here @Henrik - As you know, the USB camera would not show in the devices list so I had to switch to the 32 bit version of NCS. I added the USB camera as a source, now I have moved back to the 64 bit version of NCS and the USB camera is still there, recording as it should be! So seems that if you have a 32 bit USB camera, switch to 32 bit NCS to set it up, then back to 64 bit NCS and the cam is still there :slight_smile: and it seems more stable, and has not froze on me yet. Fingers crossed this has fixed it…:slight_smile:

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@Henrik - I’ve found the issue and fixed it. This may be useful for other users too. In device manager, usb devices, each USB port / hub had power saving active. I disabled this on each one then rebooted the server. Usb cam is now not freezing, and the stream is running at a higher FPS too… Result :+1::+1:

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Excellent and thanks for info! I do a post of that. Was the freeze happening when usb cam was in motion detection or continuously recording or was it just in viewing mode?

Not sure what was happening when it froze @Henrik. That camera was set to record on motion with monitoring 24/7, but was in a place that doesn’t capture much motion. Suspect if no motion for so long it would “sleep”, but it’s definitely fine since I disabled power saving :+1:

@Henrik So the above did not resolve my USB camera crashing and freezing, it froze 2 days later. Not one to be beat, I have been researching this solidly now. And have found the answer! You need to navigate the registry to > HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows Media Foundation\Platform. Then add a new DWORD called “EnableFrameServerMode” and set it’s value to “0”, then reboot. Since doing this, The server has ran for 3 weeks now without that camera crashing or freezing. Job done. Apparently it’s a glitch in Windows 10.

Hi,
Thank you very much for valuable information. Such errors are really annoying!
Another more detailed link how to fix it https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/webcam-anniversary-update-windows-10-yuys-standard/
Thanks,
Henrik

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